on the second hit further back in time on this Apollo - Space Shuttle Golden Mean Phi based timespiral:
January 19, 1965 - The unmanned Gemini 2 is launched on a suborbital test of various spacecraft systems.
Gemini 2 was the second spaceflight of the American human spaceflight program Project Gemini. Gemini 2, like Gemini 1, was an unmanned mission intended as a test flight of the Gemini spacecraft's heat shield. The flight was suborbital and was launched on a Titan II rocket. The mission's spacecraft later became the first to be flown into space twice when it was sent on an unmanned military mission.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gemini_2
As this Golden Mean Phi based spiral goes inwards back in time, there's a timframe from where this spiral originates from in our perspective of time.
We go back to the timeframe around July 22 , 1958, based on the timeframe between the Space Shuttle disasters. Remember that the timeframe between the markers Challenger and Columbia was rounded to full days, the perfect Golden Mean spiral would put the start of the spiral a few days later than July 22, 1958
Explorer 4 was a US satellite launched on July 26, 1958. It was instrumented by Dr. James van Allen's group. The Department of Defense's Advanced Research Projects Agency had initially planned two satellites for the purposes of studying the Van Allen radiation belts and the effects of nuclear explosions upon these belts (and the Earth's magnetosphere in general), however Explorer IV was the only such satellite launched.
Explorer 4 was a cylindrically shaped satellite instrumented to make the first detailed measurements of charged particles (protons and electrons) trapped in the terrestrial radiation belts. An unexpected tumble motion of the satellite made the interpretation of the detector data very difficult. The low-power transmitter and the plastic scintillator detector failed September 3, 1958. The two Geiger-Mueller tubes and the caesium iodide crystal detectors continued to operate normally until September 19, 1958. The high-power transmitter ceased sending signals on October 5, 1958. It is believed that exhaustion of the power batteries caused these failures. The spacecraft decayed from orbit after 454 days on October 23, 1959.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Explorer_IV
Operation Argus
Operation Argus was a series of nuclear weapons tests and missile tests secretly conducted during August and September of 1958, in the South Atlantic, by the Defense Nuclear Agency, in conjunction with the
Explorer IV mission. Contractors from Lockheed Aircraft Corporation as well as a few personnel and contractors from the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission were on hand as well. The timeframe for Argus was substantially impacted due to the instability of the political environment (bans on atmospheric and exoatmospheric testing were forthcoming). Consequently, the tests were conducted within a mere half year of conception (whereas "normal" testing took one to two years).
The tests
About 1800 km southwest of Cape Town, South Africa, USS Norton Sound launched three modified X-17A missiles armed with 1.7 kt W-25 nuclear warheads into the upper atmosphere, where high altitude nuclear explosions took place. The (extreme) altitude of the tests was chosen so as to prevent personnel involved in the test from being exposed to any ionizing radiation [1].
Coordinated measurement programs involving satellite, rocket, aircraft, and surface stations were employed by the services as well as other government agencies and various contractors worldwide.
The tests were proposed by Nicholas Christofilos of what was then the Livermore branch of the Lawrence Radiation Laboratory (now Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory) as a means to verify the Christofilos theory, which argued that high-altitude nuclear detonations would create a radiation belt in the extreme upper regions of the Earth's atmosphere. Such belts would be similar in effect to the Van Allen radiation belts. Such radiation belts were viewed as having possible tactical use in war. Prior to Argus, Hardtack Teak had shown disruption of radio communications from a nuclear blast. However, this was not due to the creation of radiation belts.
The Argus explosions created artificial electron belts resulting from the β-decay of fission fragments. These lasted for several weeks. Such radiation belts affect radio and radar transmissions, damage or destroy arming and fusing mechanisms of intercontinental ballistic missile warheads, and endanger crews of orbiting space vehicles.
Argus proved the validity of Christofilos theory: the establishment of an electron shell derived from neutron and β-decay of fission products and ionization of device materials in the upper atmosphere was demonstrated. It not only provided data on military considerations, but produced a "great mass" of geophysical data.
The tests were first reported by the New York Times on March 19, 1959, headlining it as the "greatest scientific experiment ever conducted." Approximately nine ships and 4,500 people participated in the operation. After the completion of testing, the task force departed for the United States via Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Followed the Hardtack I series, but preceded Hardtack II.
While the tests were announced the following year, the full results and documentation of the tests were not declassified until 30 April 1982.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Argus
